Sven Harmsen, director of external venturing, Saint-Gobain NOVA, Malvern, PA
MALVERN, PA—Since 2006, building products company Saint-Gobain has encouraged innovation through an external ventures incubator called Saint-Gobain NOVA. Now, the business accelerator has named Sven Harmsen, a former venture investments strategist for German pharmaceutical company Merck, as director of external venturing to drive Saint-Gobain NOVA's broader growth strategy, as well as the company's strategy around engagement and investment in startups and their relationships with Saint-Gobain businesses.
With more than 15 years of experience in business development and investment in venture capital backed start-ups and large corporations, Harmsen's expertise will help Saint-Gobain NOVA enhance its partnership activities with like-minded startups and grow the company's investment portfolio. He will also be actively involved in ensuring the success of the InNOVAte 2019 Challenge, an accelerator program developed in partnership with CertainTeed, Saint-Gobain's leading building and construction brand, and Greentown Labs, the largest cleantech incubator in the U.S., with the goal of developing innovative technologies to disrupt the built environment value chain.
“Sven's experience leading global investment teams and developing strategic plans for portfolio companies will be valuable to our team as we work to expand our portfolio,” says Minas Apelian, vice president of R&D, quality and external venturing at Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed. “The diversity of Sven's background as well as his deep knowledge of business development and strategic investment will help to enhance our overarching strategy to ensure we create an optimized, efficient plan for our path forward.”
Before joining Saint-Gobain NOVA, Harmsen served as investment director at M Ventures, the global corporate venture arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. From M Ventures' office in Cambridge, MA, he established and led a global investment team focusing on strategic investments in the field of performance materials and built an international portfolio of strategic investments. He also previously worked for BASF Venture Capital and started its first investment office on the East Coast of the US. During his time in strategic venture units, he actively served on various boards of portfolio start-ups as director or observer and generated strong deal flow covering diverse technical fields being of interest for BASF Venture Capital and later on for M Ventures.
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Steve Lubetkin
Steve Lubetkin is the New Jersey and Philadelphia editor for GlobeSt.com. He is currently filling in covering Chicago and Midwest markets until a new permanent editor is named. He previously filled in covering Atlanta. Steve’s journalism background includes print and broadcast reporting for NJ news organizations. His audio and video work for GlobeSt.com has been honored by the Garden State Journalists Association, and he has also been recognized for video by the New Jersey Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has produced audio podcasts on CRE topics for the NAR Commercial Division and the CCIM Institute. Steve has also served (from August 2017 to March 2018) as national broadcast news correspondent for CEOReport.com, a news website focused on practical advice for senior executives in small- and medium-sized companies. Steve also reports on-camera and covers conferences for NJSpotlight.com, a public policy news coverage website focused on New Jersey government and industry; and for clients of StateBroadcastNews.com, a division of The Lubetkin Media Companies LLC. Steve has been the computer columnist for the Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey, since 1996. Steve is co-author, with Toronto-based podcasting pioneer Donna Papacosta, of the book, The Business of Podcasting: How to Take Your Podcasting Passion from the Personal to the Professional. You can email Steve at [email protected].
